You Deserve Good Things!
When their car plummeted into a reservoir, Preetisha Kshetri’s dad assured her they’d be okay. But he couldn’t swim. And the car was sinking fast . . .
Slowing her car as she hit a patch of traffic not far from home in Reston, Virginia, Beth Hoyos sighed.
“I think I’m going to be late for work,” the social worker told her 14-year- old daughter, Carlin, as she drove her home from her math tutor.
Also on their way home, Rajesh Kshetri smiled in the rearview mirror at his sevenyear- old daughter, Preetisha, then focused on the curving road that rounded Lake Anne.
Suddenly, however, Raj lost control of his car— and it crashed through the guardrail, into the woods surrounding the lake!
‘Daddy, are we going to sink?’ Preetisha cried
“Daddy!” Preetisha screamed. “Did you see that?” Beth gasped. Pulling over, she told Carlin to stay in the car and dashed down the trail, where a man was already calling 911.
“But I can’t swim!” he said, and a second later, Beth understood what he meant: Miraculously, the silver Toyota had missed every tree. But it was now floating 50 yards offshore!
Meanwhile, inside the car, Raj pushed at the driver’s door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Daddy, are we going to sink?” Preetisha cried.
Raj wanted to assure her they’d be safe. But the car was sinking fast and water was rushing in. Blessedly, he managed to get his window down just as the engine died. But unable to swim, he had no idea how he’d rescue them.
Just then, Raj glimpsed a woman standing on the shore.
“My little girl is stuck in the back!” he cried.
Without another thought, Beth leapt into the 30-foot deep lake. Though she participates in triathlons— an event combining running, cycling and swimming— swimming was her weakest activity. But what if it were Carlin who was trapped?
Beth swallowed hard, and began to swim across the lake. Her clothes grew heavy. Her boots fi lled with water. It took all her strength to kick.
When Beth finally reached the Toyota, Rajesh was twisted around trying to unsnap Preetisha’s car seat. Beth reached through the window, and together, they wriggled her over the front seat and out the window of the sinking car as Rajesh followed.
Taking Preetisha into her arms, Beth asked her, “Can you swim?
“I took lessons,” Preetisha nodded.
Beth would have taken her to shore, but spotted Rajesh struggling to stay afloat. So instead, she gave Preetisha a mighty shove toward shore, and a man jumped in and brought her to safety.
Though exhausted, Beth knew she had to help Rajesh.
“I can’t swim. That’s why I got my daughter lessons,” he confessed as the car disappeared into the dark water.
But when Raj grabbed Beth’s arm, he dragged them both under! He’s going to drown us both! Beth realized, sputtering water . . . and then she spotted Carlin on shore, terror on her face. What if she saw her own mother drown?
“We’re doing this!” Beth resolved and took Rajesh’s arm in one hand and began paddling with the other. Her legs were nearly vertical from the weight of her boots, but inch by inch, she swam to shore.
There, Preetisha ran to hug her dad. “Mom, you’re a hero!” Carlin cried as sirens approached. “But without you . . . You were the angel at the right moment!” Rajesh marveled.
Still, Beth refuses to see herself that way.
“Hero is a strange term, because you’re supposed to help people,” she says. “It’s just the right thing to do. And I am so happy I could!”
“Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” Emma Donoghue